I slowly opened my eyes, as I did, a wooden roof filled my vision; a familiar wooden roof. I slowly pushed myself up to see my surroundings. I was in my room, laying on my bed.

But how?

That bastard knocked me out in the woods, so I had expected to wake up there. I didn’t see him as such a nice person to take me home, but if so, how could he have possibly known where I live?

My thoughts were interrupted though as I saw something moving under my blanket.

I quickly got out of my bed, avoiding the blanket. If that bastard truly did take me home I wouldn’t put it past him if he put some type of mana beast to mess with me when I woke up.

I looked at my bed and whatever was under the blankets moved back and forth trying to find its way out.

Then out of nowhere a boy-ish child-like voice rang in my head, ‘Can you get this thing off me! I can’t see.’

I looked around my room, wondering who the hell the voice was. I had never heard it before, he sounded like a bad-mouthed child.

‘I’m not a bad-mouthed child! My name is Rye. You should know this already, you've seen my memories.’

“What?” I said aloud, flabbergasted. I lifted the blanket and the sight of a familiar orange-furred cub filled my vision. “You can talk?”

In the memories, I had seen his mother talk, but the way she carried herself and the aura she exuded, I didn’t even question it.

Rye though, Looked and seemed nothing like his mother, so it came as a bit of a shock.

‘I’m not really talking. Since we’re familiarized, I can use telepathy to communicate with you.’ He said, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

“What the hell is ‘familiarized’.” I asked, but before he could answer, I asked another question, “And how are you here anyway? I thought you were lost in the woods somewhere.”

I had just woken up and I was talking to an animal with ‘so called’ telepathy, not to mention the number of times I got knocked out the night before, I started to fear brain damage.

I lifted the feline cub by the excess skin of his neck so he was eye level with me. “Okay Rye, just start from the top, and please, for the sake of my mind, go slow.”

I rubbed my temple with my other hand trying to massage my head as he began speaking with telepathy.

‘I’m just going to start from when I killed that snake, is that fine?’

“Yes,” I responded.

‘Do you remember after I killed the snake I scratched your palm?”

I stopped rubbing my temple and looked at my hand which now had three scars in the shape of claw marks, “Yeah I do.”

‘That was to initiate the familiarizing process. The bright light was part of the process as well. The memories are not however, I did that on my own. After I disappeared with the bright light I went…’ In the middle of his sentence, he stopped, ‘Well, it’s better if I just show you.’

At his words, he somehow turned incorporeal and jumped in my body, near my solar plexus, where my mana core was located.

“What the hell?” I took a step back, stupefied.

I recovered immediately though as I heard Rye’s voice ring in my mind again, ‘Calm down, I'm not some man-eating virus, I promise.’

I sighed, “I know that, but it’s still unusual.”

‘Anyway, like I was saying, I spent some time in your mana core to recover some strength. The familiarizing process took a lot out of me.’

“You what?” I truly didn’t know how to feel. This little menace can go in and out of my mana core as he pleases?

His child-like voice pulled me out of my thoughts, ‘I said, I went inside your mana core. Come on keep up.’

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“If you weren’t inside my body right now, I would smack you around. Just keep talking.”

The cub hopped out of my body, stuck his tongue out at me, then hopped back in.

This annoying little…..

‘Think back to when the bright light disbursed. Along with your mind, your mana core was hurting too, correct?”

“Yeah, it was,” I responded

‘Check your mana core now.’

I sat down on my bed and I got into a meditative position, beginning to check my body. I located my mana and observed it with wonder. It was still dark red, but what caught my attention was the pure white flame silently dancing right in the middle of my core. It gave off a weird vibe, it was inside my mana core but it didn’t feel like it belonged to me, but at the same time, it did.

“Rye, what is that?” I asked.

‘that is my soul.’

“So what you're saying is that your soul merging with my mana core was the reason it was hurting? And this is the so-called ‘Familiarizing process’ which allows you to communicate with me using telepathy?”

I felt his excitement at my realization, ‘exactly!’

I didn’t say anything back, I just stood there with no exact expression on my face. I thought back to the memories Rye had shown me. He had trusted me enough to show me his past, but why? How could he know I was the person his mother was talking about? How could he be sure?

After a few seconds, I finally spoke, “Rye, why me?”

How could he just implant his soul into my mana core without any second thoughts?

The cub hopped out of my body and sat on my bed, looking up at me. His magenta eyes carried a sense of certainty and optimism, ‘I really don’t know either. Many other people have ventured into the woods and I had never batted an eye, but when I saw you, I don’t know, something just clicked. I got a sense that you were more than you seemed, and I was right.’

“What do you mean, you were right?” I asked, trying to figure out what the young cub was getting at.

His feline face gave something that could only be akin to a smirk, ‘I mean you don’t run into a lot of people who aren’t from this world.’

I sighed, “I'm guessing you saw my memories.”

He jumped up and down excitedly, ‘It’s only natural I did, sense we’re bonded now.’

At the revelation that Rye saw my memories, I wasn't mad or annoyed. I don’t know why but I felt I didn’t need to be, the damage was already done. I couldn’t blame him or hate him. I had seen almost every memory and felt every emotion Rye had felt.

His mother had told him to truly live his life and If I could help him in that, I would. After all that was one of my goals too.

I looked at him, as he was still jumping up and down in my bed like a child.

Besides Rye, there were still other matters to think about, “Rye do you know where that man that I fought with went?”

He stopped his playful jumping, ‘Oh yeah! I almost forgot, after your fight he took you home.’

So it’s just as I thought. “Did he see you Rye?”

‘No, I only showed myself when he wasn’t around, but ever since morning he’s been talking to your family.’

“What?” I gasped. “Rye, get in my body.” He understood what I was planning, and hopped in.

I opened my door and tiptoed quietly down the hallway. When I reached the end, I heard the whole family laughing and eating lunch with the man in the center of everyone’s attention.

‘Seems like they're having family time without you.’ Rye teased.

“Oh, shut up” I whispered

Curious, I peeked around the corner of the hall to get a better look. He looked nothing like when I saw him in the woods. His long black hair was neatly tied at the nape of his neck and his clothes were neat and clean, unlike the worn-out clothes I’d seen him in before.

He was talking to my father about someone named Apollo. The man just responded with, “Oh he’s doing great. All he does is sit in the training room, but I feel like he’ll come around to his position in time. You know how he is.”

This time, my mother spoke, “Well that’s great.”

She had said something else, but I couldn’t continue my eavesdropping because Rye spoke in my mind, ‘I know I should’ve told you this before, but you don’t have to speak to me out loud, you can use telepathy to speak to me as well.’

A bit of annoyance grew and the bit of important information that he could’ve told me earlier, but I just let go, thankful that he told me at all.

I eventually walked into the dining room. I figured I wouldn’t get any answers of who this man was by eavesdropping, so this was my only option.

I stepped out of the hallway, the dining room went quiet as they all turned to me.

The first person to speak was my mother, “Oh, Fal you’re up. You really need to work on those sleeping habits.”

Sleeping habits? I thought the first thing my mother would do was punish me for last night. Did the man not tell my parents I snuck out?

I rubbed the back of my head, somewhat embarrassed, “Well, It's just my bed is so comfy.”

“You’re lucky mom said no more water balls to wake you up or I would’ve dropped it this time,” Myla said. “Really, you missed breakfast and most of lunch.”

“At least he’s here now.” My father said, “Come sit with us Falyn we have much to discuss.”

I sat down in the chair next to the man, and finally, my mother introduced him. “Fal this is my brother and your uncle, Zeph”

Zeph turned to me, noticing my shock, and gave me a crafty smile, “Nice to me you, my dear nephew.”